Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Foliage Followup -- December 2016

Today is Foliage Followup, hosted by Pam at the blog Digging, which occurs every month on the day after Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, with the purpose of celebrating the important role of foliage in the garden. When flowers fade, what do you have left?

Right now, after our recent frosty nights, most of the foliage in my garden is a mass of mess. Black, mushy and ugly. I am hard pressed to find anything worth sharing.

But there are a few things that are still unscathed.

I am so very pleased with my Eucalyptus archeri in the front garden, bought a couple of years ago at Xera in Portland. It has really taken off in just the two years since I planted it. It started out as a gallon-size start, not more than a few feet tall, and now it's over my head, way over my head. Ten feet or more. The instructions on the tag say to coppice in early spring to maintain juvenile foliage, but I think I may just let it grow to its full 25 ft. height. I don't mind if it gets long, willow-like leaves, and I really want the trunk to get mature enough to start showing lots of color as it peels.





Here are some other plants whose foliage is still looking good.

Not a Eucalyptus, but a perennial that is a Euc look-alike -- Parahebe perfoliata

Pinus sylvestris 'Nisbet's Gold'

Paperbark maple leaf cluster in the clutches of the Callistemon that grows below


That's about it for interesting foliage in my garden this month. Check out Digging here for more Foliage Followup posts.